Stephen Hendry issues brutal verdict on top snooker star's latest results: "he's fallen from grace a little"

The seven-time world champion turned commentator and pundit was assessing the current form and results of several of the sport’s top players during the latest episode of the World Snooker Tour’s official podcast ‘Snooker Club’.

The professional circuit is now nearly a year-long operation, with only a few weeks between seasons. We’re only just into October, but already a plethora of tournaments have been completed.

Stephen Maguire started the new term by ending a five-year wait for a ranking title when he won the season-opening Championship League in July.

Then there was an Asian triple-header of events in August with Kyren Wilson winning the Shanghai Masters, Neil Robertson triumphing at the Saudi Arabia Masters, and Xiao Guodong successfully defending the Wuhan Open crown.

Top flight action returned to UK shores for September; Mark Allen and Shaun Murphy both returned to the ranking event winners club with title successes at the English Open and British Open, respectively.

From the opening six competitions, there have been six different champions and 12 different finalists, but neither Trump, nor reigning world champion Zhao Xintong have yet to feature in a final.

Trump has held the world number one spot for over a year now. Whilst he has a lot of prize money to defend from his tally over the coming months, he is currently £550,400 clear of second-placed Kyren Wilson, and top of the standings on the provisional end-of-season projections.

However, Trump is going through - by his incredible standards in recent years - a barren spell, having not lifted a trophy in 2025, and ‘only’ appeared in one final during that time.

Two seasons ago the Englishman scooped five ranking titles, and last season he conquered at the Shanghai Masters, the inaugural Saudi Arabia Masters, and the UK Championship. But his 10-8 final victory over Barry Hawkins in York at the start of last December represents his latest title win.

From his outings this season, so far, Trump made the quarters in Shanghai, lost his opening match in Saudi, then bowed out in the last 16 of the Wuhan, English, and British Opens.

Co-host of the Snooker Club Podcast, Hendry was asked by presenter Mark Watson to grade Trump’s campaign, so far, to which the Scotsman brutally replied: “If you're going by what he usually does, you got to give him E. I mean, maybe D. D.

“I'm going by what Judd's telling me in the studio. He says, ‘well he played well in this match’, ‘played well in this match, but lost and played well’”.

“But when you're Judd Trump you're there to win tournaments. That’s what he’s done for the last few years and anything less than winning to him is not acceptable”.

Summing up, Hendry decided to push Trump down a grade. “So yeah, I’m going to go E. Just based on what he usually does...this season he’s fallen from grace a little bit and he’s not won a snooker tournament this calendar year”.

Hendry rates world champion Zhao Xintong’s start to season

Later in the episode, the attention focused on current Crucible king Zhao, and like with Trump, Hendry talked about how it's been a largely disappointing term for him, so far.

China and Asia's first world professional snooker champion, Zhao reached the semi-finals in Shanghai, before losing in the last 16 in Saudi. He's then had last 32 eliminations in the Wuhan, English, and British Opens.

The 28-year-old does lead this season's century count with 22, currently ahead of Mark Selby and Trump who have made 19 each.

Evaluating Zhao’s reign in its early months, Hendry said: “I’d give Zhao no higher than a D. I actually thought he might have won a tournament by now.

“There’s no-one, and I’m including everyone in this, like Ronnie’s (O’Sullivan) obviously the closest, but there’s no-one that makes the game look as easy as Zhao does when he’s playing well. He’s just outstanding. But he’s not had sort of world champion results yet.

“He’s played well. He’s showed flashes of his Crucible form, but at the Crucible when he got in you thought it was frame over. It was incredible. Every time he got in it was frame over. You’ve not had that feeling of confidence in him to be like that since this season what I’ve seen of him. So it’s a D for me”.

Next up for both Trump and Zhao is the £850,000 Xi’an Grand Prix ranking event that runs between October 7-13.